Moria - The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review

06/01/2025

Justin Kurzel is arguably the finest director at work in Australia today. He specialises in true crime film. Nitram is strong and powerful work based on the notorious case of Martin Bryant who went on a shooting spree, killing 35 people at Port Arthur in 1996 in what became Australia’s biggest mass murder spree

A true crime film based on Martin Bryant who went on a shooting spree, killing 35 people in Port Arthur, Australia in 1996

05/01/2025

This featured in a number of Best of 2024 horror surveys. A blind clairvoyant visits her dead sister’s house and picks up impressions that her murder was not what it seemed. An Irish film that seems set to be a clairvoyant murder mystery before developing an incredibly uncanny atmosphere

An Irish film that develops an incredibly uncanny atmosphere as a blind clairvoyant deduces what happened regarding her sister’s murder

04/01/2025

The Wallace and Gromit short films are one of the great delights that everybody of all ages seems to love. Here Aardman Animation give Wallace and Gromit their second film outing



https://www.moriareviews.com/fantasy/wallace-and-gromit-vengeance-most-fowl-2024.htm

03/01/2025

A spinoff prequel to the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films that takes the option that several other film/videogame franchises have done of Going Anime

A spinoff prequel to the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films that takes the option that several other film/videogame franchises have of Going Anime

02/01/2025

So today we have a double feature on the topic of 1980s/90s Killer Cyborg Cinema, a prolific video-era niche following the big successes of The Terminator and Robocop.

Cyborg Cop II (1994). The height of the 90s RoboCop copycat video release. A full-tilt action film with DEA agent David Bradley up against an army of rogue cyborgs

The height of the 90s RoboCop copycat video release with DEA agent David Bradley up against an army of rogue cyborgs

02/01/2025

Here's to the first double feature of the new year. Today I will take a look at Killer Cyborg Films of the Video Era.. The huge successes of The Terminator and RoboCop produced a series of low-budget, video-released films about killer androids and cyborgs throughout the late 1980s and 1990s.

Robowar (1988). This comes from Italy and is a blatant copy of Predator – only where instead of a military unit being hunted through the jungle by an alien, they are hunted by a copycat of RoboCop

From Italy, a blatant copy of Predator but where instead soldiers being hunted through the jungle by an alien, they are hunted by a copycat of RoboCop

01/01/2025

Perhaps the strangest film on Chuck Norris’s cv – the film where Chuck Norris plays an angel. A work of Christian horror where Chuck’s son Mike writes the script and plays a decent man trapped in a sinister Western town of devil worshipping children

The film where Chuck Norris plays an angel. Chuck’s son Mike plays a man trapped in a sinister Western town of devil worshipping children

31/12/2024

This seems the perfect film to end 2024 on, especially at a time while I am still sitting in 2024 and a good many of you are already into the New Year. Anyway whichever era you are living in, a Happy New Year to you all.

It Happened Tomorrow (1944). A classic screwball comedy with Dick Powell as a journalist who becomes recipient of newspapers that predict tomorrow’s headlines. The newspaper that prints tomorrow's headlines has become a theme used in other subsequent works but this was the first to do so.

Classic screwball comedy with Dick Powell as a journalist who becomes recipient of newspapers that predict tomorrow’s headlines

30/12/2024

Think of this as a crosshatch between The Terminator and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That is if you can imagine the android as the hero who travels back in time to learn a lost form of kung fu in order to prevent an alien invasion

A Chinese version of The Terminator with the android hero travelling back in time to learn a lost form of kung fu to prevent an alien invasion

29/12/2024

A wonderfully disturbed little film from Norway. A girl goes on a date with a man and discovers he has a roommate who wears a furrie suit and lives as a dog. And then things start to get really twisted!

A girl goes on a date with a man and discovers he has a roommate who wears a furrie suit as a dog. And then things starts to get really twisted

28/12/2024

Unless another strong contender comes between now and when I post my Top 10, this gets my nomination for Best Animated Film of the year and a clear place on the Top 10 list. This is a delight, a film made entirely without dialogue following a group of animals fleeing as their territory is flooded

The most delightful animated film of the year, a film made entirely without dialogue following a group of animals fleeing as their territory is flooded

27/12/2024

A straggler from the Christmas season that I didn't get time to finish writing up with the rest of my Christmas films.

Red One (2024). This is essentially 'Christmas the Action Film' with Dwayne Johnson as Santa’s bodyguard going into action when Santa is abducted

Essentially Christmas the Action Film with Dwayne Johnson as Santa’s bodyguard going into action when Santa is abducted

26/12/2024

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

Japanese monster movie time. Gamera vs Gyaos (1967) aka Return of the Giant Monsters. This was the third of Daiei’s Gamera films, which were always made as copies of Toho’s more high-profile Godzilla films. This takes the series back to children’s movie territory but offers appealingly silly fun

The third of Daiei’s Gamera films, which were always made as copies of Toho’s more high-profile Godzilla films

25/12/2024

Christmas Day greetings going to everybody out there. Hope all are having a good day in whatever way you celebrate. Here's Moria's Christmas Day movie.

A Christmas Carol (1984). A well-made and extremely faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens’s perennial Christmas story starring George C. Scott as Scrooge

Well-made and extremely faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens’s perennial Christmas story starring George C. Scott as Scrooge

24/12/2024

A Merry Christmas to those in the parts of the world that have already started celebrating the day. As part of Moria's Christmas season:-

Mother Krampus (2017). From the people who made Demonic Christmas Tree. This was sold as a Krampus film but concerns a Germanic folklore figure who haunts towns at Christmas who has been invoked by a wronged woman to take retribution on a town

From the same people who made Demonic Christmas Tree, this is a supernatural retribution film that was sold as a Krampus film

23/12/2024

Continuing the celebration of Christmas with Moria. The 12 Slays of Christmas (2016). From Troma films, an anthology made up of twelve Christmas-themed short horror films

From Troma films, an anthology made up of twelve Christmas-themed short horror films

23/12/2024

This starts out as thugs take over an out-of-season girls’ boarding school just before Christmas. To say more would be to spoil its twists but to say that this is film that pleasingly subverts your expectations of everything it is going to be at every turn with quite satisfying results



https://www.moriareviews.com/horror/sacrifice-game-2023.htm

21/12/2024

The third of the Tom Hardy-starring films spun off around the Spider-Man villain Venom. By this point any pretence that the Venom films are taking themselves seriously has been long forgotten

The third of the Venom films but by this point any pretence that the films are taking themselves seriously has been long forgotten